Of Birthdays and Unicorns
by Hazel Sage
Summary: Short one-shot. Victoire bonds with her Uncle Harry on her sixth birthday through a chat involving heaven and unicorns


Little Victoire Weasley liked her Uncle Harry a lot. He was like Papa – a leader, kind, quiet but funny when he wanted to be. She wasn't quite sure why she was so close to him, but he'd always been her favorite uncle.

So understandably, she was a bit upset when she couldn't find him at her sixth birthday party. She'd seen him earlier and he'd wished her happy birthday. Aunt Ginny was still there, holding her baby cousin James and very far along with another baby. So Uncle Harry had to be around somewhere. She wanted to talk to him about unicorns.

She snuck out of the Burrow's living room without much trouble. With Grandma and Grandpa, her parents, four sets of aunts and uncles plus Uncle Charlie, and six other little ones (Teddy, Fred, Dominique, Roxanne, James, and Molly), it wasn't too difficult to get past the noise and out to the garden. The only one she'd been worried about catching her was Teddy, but he was being distracted by Uncle George's pranks.

Victoire had been taught from an early age not to venture outside the protective wards of the Burrow, so she resolved to check the garden only before going in and asking Aunt Ginny to find him.

But Victoire was lucky and found Uncle Harry sitting on a bench, staring at the sky. However, she was surprised to see how sad he looked. She knew that he always looked kind of sad – as did most of her older family – on her birthday, but everyone ended up being happy by the end. Victoire had learned not to ask about it.

Nevertheless, it hurt to see Uncle Harry look so sad, the saddest she'd ever seen him, and she figured she could ask to try and make him feel better. Maman always said that talking things out made the hurt feel better.

"Uncle Harry? Why do you look so sad?" Victoire asked quietly, approaching him.

Harry wasn't really startled by his little niece's voice, but he still jumped a bit as she asked her question. He opened his arms as she sat on the bench and inched closer to cuddle up in his side.

He wondered what he should tell her. Thoughts and excuses all whirled around in his head, but he decided to stick to the watered down truth.

"Tori," he began, calling her the nickname that only a few of the family could get away with, "you've been told about Uncle Fred, right?"

Victoire nodded solemnly. "Uncle Fred's in heaven. That's why Uncle George gets sad sometimes."

Harry nodded. "Well on this day, eight years ago, Uncle Fred went to heaven. We know he's probably happy up there with all those people to prank, but we miss him very much. Other people went to heaven that day too. Teddy's parents went to heaven and so did some of my friends, our family's friends."

Victoire looked up at him with wide eyes. "All of them went to heaven on the same day?"

"There was a bad man who wanted a fight," Harry replied as he nodded. "There was a big fight and some people had to go to heaven because of it." He hesitated then added. "I almost went to heaven that day."

Her eyebrows furrowed.

Harry sighed. "There's a spell, Tori, a very bad spell that sends people to heaven. People always go to heaven when they get hit with it. Except, I'd been hit with it before when I was very, very little, like baby James." His hand brushed his scar, flashes of his parent's deaths appearing before his eyes.

"That's the scar that people stare at," Victoire said knowledgeably.

Harry looked, startled, at the perceptive six-year-old, wondering if a Ravenclaw had come into the family. "Yes, that's the scar people like to stare at. It's from that spell. I was supposed to go to heaven. Then, six years ago, I was hit with the same spell. And I went halfway to heaven, but I turned around and came back."

"How do you come back?" Victoire asked. "Can Uncle Fred come back? Or Teddy's parents?"

"Most people don't come back, Tori," Harry said, sadness darkening his eyes at the thought of the costs of the war. "I got a choice because I needed to get rid of the bad man," he told her, simplifying the truth as to avoid the topic of the sacrifices made for him.

"Do you have another funny scar?" She asked curiously after a moment, staring at his forehead as if she was going to find a second lightning scar there.

The question startled a chuckle out of Harry who said, "I have a scar on my chest from it. It looks kind of like this scar," he gestured to his forehead, "but it's not the same."

"Well, I'm sorry that Uncle Fred and Teddy's parents can't come back, but I'm glad you could come back Uncle Harry," Victoire told him sincerely. "I'd be really sad if I didn't have you Uncle Harry or baby James. And everyone else would be sad too, especially Aunt Ginny."

"Thank you," Harry replied, touched, as he dropped a kiss on her forehead. "I'm glad I came back for everyone too."

"What does heaven look like, Uncle Harry?" She asked.

Harry was once again startled. "I… I can't say, Tori. I only made it halfway there. It looked like King's Cross to me," he admitted, not sure why he was telling his six-year-old niece one of his most private memories, but knowing that it was okay. "The train was going to take me to heaven if I didn't come back."

The niece and uncle sat in silence for a while, enjoying the moonlight.

Finally, Harry, having been staring slightly to the right for quite a while, couldn't keep ignoring what was in front of him.

"Tori?"

"Hm?" The little girl sounded slightly sleepy, having been comfortable at her uncle's side.

"You know I just told you how I almost went to heaven?"

He felt her nod into his side.

"Well, it means that I know when the people from heaven are visiting and watching over us. And a lot of them are here." He admitted.

Victoire perked up. "They're here?"

Harry nodded and jerked his head slightly to the right. "Uncle Fred is over there. He says happy birthday and that he loves you. He says that he wants you to spend more time in the joke shop too."

Victoire smiled and, trusting six-year-old that she is, turned to look where Harry had gestured, saying, "I wish I got to meet you Uncle Fred. I'll go to the shop next time Maman and Papa let me go."

"Teddy's parents are over there too," Harry said quietly. "They say that they're glad that you're Teddy's best friend and they like you very much."

"Good," Victoire said, sounding satisfied, "because I like Teddy a lot so I want his maman and papa to like me. I think I'd like them too."

Harry smiled fondly at his niece and squeezed her tightly, glad that she'd found him before he'd truly gotten himself depressed with his memories. She'd somehow managed to make him feel better even as he talked about some of the things that made him so depressed.

Realizing that it was probably time to go inside, Harry flashed a glance towards the apparitions of the past before standing up with his niece and gripping his hand. "We should probably head back inside, Victoire. Why did you come outside anyways?"

"I was looking for you," she replied simply. "I wanted to ask you about unicorns."

Harry's grin widened and he asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Have you seen a unicorn?"

Harry nodded, though he tried not to frown at the thought of the poor creature he'd encountered first.

Victoire's eyes shone. "What did it look like, Uncle Harry?"

"Unicorns are beautiful creatures," He told her, thinking of what the animal he'd seen would have looked like when it was alive. "They are the brightest shade of white you can imagine with silver horns and golden hooves. The foals are born with coats of gold. All unicorns are very hard to catch because they are very powerful animal. They're the purest creatures there are. They like girls better than boys. You might learn about them at Hogwarts."

By this time, Harry and Victoire had reached the back door and gone inside.

Various exclamations were made as the family claimed that they'd been looking for the birthday girl. Victoire had smiled at everybody, but noticed Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, and Aunt Ginny giving Uncle Harry slightly worried glances. But Uncle Harry was smiling and Victoire felt happy that talking about heaven and unicorns had made her uncle feel better.

"What were you talking about with Uncle Harry?" Papa asked as Victoire walked over to give him a hug.

Victoire thought about repeating her conversation about Uncle Fred, Teddy's parents, and heaven, but she figured that since Papa hadn't told her about Uncle Harry almost going to heaven, Uncle Harry probably didn't like to talk about it. She felt very special, knowing that Uncle Harry had shared something like that with her.

"Uncle Harry was telling me about unicorns," she told him proudly.

Papa smiled and began to tell Victoire about his own experiences with unicorns.

Victoire had a wonderful birthday and was happy to spend the night with her large family. When everyone went their separate ways, she gave an extra big hug to Uncle Harry.

"I'm glad you came back, Uncle Harry," she whispered.

Giving her a smile tinged with a bit of sadness, Harry whispered back, "There really wasn't another choice."

**A/N: Just something that popped into my head… Please excuse the lack of much editing. I wanted some Harry and Victoire bonding and decided to explore the fact that Victoire's birthday being on the war anniversary. Thanks for reading!**


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